Jeremiah Wiffen
Jeremiah Holmes Wiffen (30 December 1792 - 2 May 1836) was an English poet and translator. Life Wiffen was born at Woburn, Bedfordshire, the eldest son of Elizabeth (Pattison) and John Wiffen, ironmonger. Both his parents were members of old quaker families. His father died early, leaving 6 children to the mother's care.Gordon, 187. At the age of 10 Jeremiah entered the Friends' school at Ackworth, Yorkshire, where he improved a taste for poetry and acquired some skill in wood engraving. At 14 he became apprenticed to Isaac Payne, schoolmaster, at Epping, Essex. His first appearance in print was in the European Magazine (October 1807, p. 308) with an "Address to the Evening Star," versified from Ossian. His first contribution on an archæological subject was an account of Broxbourne church, Hertfordshire, with an etching by himself (Gent. Mag 1808, i. 408). In 1811 he returned to Woburn and opened a school in Leighton Road. A hard student, he made himself at home in classics and Hebrew, French, and Italian, and later, Spanish and Welsh. On a visit to the lakes with his brother in the summer of 1819 he made the acquaintance of Southey and of Wordsworth, whose "white pantaloons" and "hawk's nose’ are described in his diary. In 1820 he became editor of the Investigator, holding the position until 1824.Jeremiah Holmes Wiffen (1792-1836), English Poetry, 1579-1830, Center for Applied Technologies in the Humanities, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University. Web, Jan. 10, 2017. In the summer of 1821 he was appointed librarian at Woburn Abbey to John Russell, sixth duke of Bedford. In 1821 he issued his Proposals for publishing by subscription a new translation of Tasso in Spenserian verse. As a specimen, the 4th book of the Jerusalem Delivered was published in 1821, 8vo, with a dissertation on existing translations. His next essay in verse was a translation of the Works of Garcilasso de la Vega, 1823, 8vo, dedicated to the Duke of Bedford, with a life of Garcia Lasso de la Vega, and an essay on Spanish poetry. The publication of the completed version of Jerusalem Delivered was delayed by a fire in the printing office (which destroyed the sheets of a quarto edition, nearly printed off). It appeared in 1824, dedicated to the Duchess of Bedford, with a life of Tasso and a list of English crusaders (2 vols. 8vo; another edition same year, 3 vols. 8vo; reprinted 1830, 2 vols. 12mo; and in Bohn's series, 1854, 1 vol. 12mo, in addition to several American editions).Gordon, 188. He married, on 28 November 1828, at the Friends' meeting-house in Leeds, Mary (Whitehead) "descended from the line of Holinshed the chronicler;" the couple had 3 daughters. 8 years were spent in the compilation of his Historical Memoirs of the House of Russell, 1833, 2 vols. (portrait and plates) in 3 sizes—atlas folio (32 copies), royal 8vo, and demy 8vo. For the production of this handsome work he made researches during a 4 months' tour in Normandy. His death in 1836 was sudden, at Froxfield, near Woburn. He was buried on 8 May in the Friends' graveyard, Woburn Sands, Buckinghamshire. Writing In conjunction with James Baldwin Brown the elder and Thomas Raffles he anonymously published Poems by Three Friends (1813, 8vo); their joint authorship was acknowledged in the second edition (1815, 12mo). With his brother he published Elegiac Lines (1818, 8vo) commemorating William Thompson, quaker schoolmaster of Penketh, Lancashire. His earliest independent volume was Aonian Hours (1819, 8vo, dedicated to his brother; 2nd ed. 1820, 8vo). His next book was Julia Alpinula, and other Poems (1820, 12mo, dedicated to Alaric A. Watts; 2nd ed. 1820, 12mo). Hogg, in the Noctes Ambrosianæ, refers to Wiffen as "the best scholar among a' the quakers" and "a capital translator, Sir Walter tells me, o' poets wi' foreign tongues, sic as Tasso, and wi' original vein, too." The Quarterly in an able article concludes that Wiffen, as a translator of Tasso, though he has fairly distanced Hoole and Hunt, cannot hope to contend successfully with Fairfax .. His ‘Verses … on the Alameda,’ 1827, 4to; ‘Appeal for the Injured African,’ Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1833, 8vo; and ‘Verses … at Woburn Abbey, on … the statues of Locke and Erskine,’ 1836, 4to, complete his poetical publications. Besides the works above noted, he published a ‘Geographical Primer’ (1812), 12mo, and edited ‘Thoughts on the Creation, Fall, and Regeneration,’ 1826, 12mo, by John Humbles, ‘a Bedfordshire peasant.’ A selection of his poems and ballads is given in The Brothers Wiffen. Recognition Wiffen declined the degree of LL.D. from Aberdeen in 1827. His portrait (1824) is prefixed to The Brothers Wiffen, 1880. Publications Poetry *''Poems by Three Friends'' (with T. Raffles & J.B. Brown). Edinburgh: W. Heseltine, for Thomas Underwood, 1813. *''Elegiac Lines'' (with Benjamin B. Wiffen). 1818. *''Aonian Hours, and other poems''. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, 1819. *''Julia Alpinula; with The captive of Stamboul, and other poems''. New York: Warren, 1820. *''Verses Written on the Alameda at Ampthill Park''. London: James Moyes, 1827. *''Verses Written at Woburn Abbey''. London: James Moyes, 1836. *''Julia Alpinual / The Echo of Antiquity''. New York: Garland, 1978. Non-fiction *''The Geographical Primer''. London: William Darton, 1812. *''The Echo of Antiquity: The past and the future''. 1814. *''Historical Memoirs of the First Race of Ancestry whence the House of Russell had its Origin''. (2 volumes), London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman 1833. *''Appeal for the Injured African''. 1833. *''Life of Torquato Tasso''. New York: Delisser & Procter, 1859. Translated *Torquato Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered: Book the fourth. London: John Warren, 1821. *Garcilaso de la Vega, Works. London: Hurst, Robinson, 1823. *Torquato Tasso, Jerusalem Delivered. (2 volumes), London: Hurst, Robinson, 1824-25; London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown and Green, 1830; New York: Appleton, 1846. Collected editions *''The Brothers Wiffen: Memoirs and miscellanies'' (edited by S.R. Pattison). London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1880. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Jeremiah Wiffen, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Jan. 10, 2017. See also *List of British poets References * . Wikisource, Web, Jan. 10, 2017. Notes External links ;Poems *Jeremiah Holmes Wiffen (1792-1836) info & 9 poems at English Poetry, 1579-1830 ;About *The Literary Wiffen Brothers at Milton Keynes Heritage Association *Jeremiah Holmes Wiffen(1792-1836) info & 9 poems at English Poetry, 1579-1830 * Wiffen, Jeremiah Holmes Category:1792 births Category:1836 deaths Category:19th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:English poets Category:English translators Category:Poets Category:Translators to English